"Why not?" on simple things.

During my recent visit to Sri Lanka, I was surprised with 2 simple things that is being followed throughout the island. Though I have observed this a few times when I visited Colombo, the capital of the the island nation, I was of the impression that these things are being followed only in the capital but to my surprise this time, I have observed these at places away from the capital- tier 2 cities like Kandy, Galle and Negombo and smaller towns like Moratuwa, Kaluthara, Chillaw, Nuwara Eliya and so on.

1. Respect to pedestrians on roads:

Whenever I wanted to cross any road with traffic flowing on that, all I needed to do is to reach the nearest pedestrian crossing point ( Zebra crossing) and walk across the road. The drivers of vehicles are so considerate for the pedestrians and stop their vehicles to let people cross the road.Having been used to wait (im)patiently to avoid putting my life at risk to cross roads anywhere in India, I usually wait for the road to be clear with no vehicles as far as I could see.But in SL, by seeing the vehicles halting closer to the Zebra crossing for me to walk past, is a big wow.

2. Bikers with helmet:

Another surprise for me was to see all ( at least as many as I have observed deliberately) on motor cycles - including the pillion riders were seen wearing helmets.You might be surprised and asking "what's so great about this? as this should be the norm when one has to look after their safety. But it's not very common to see all motorists ( read at least 25%) with helmet in India.Occasionally, some new rules will pop up, riders charged with penalties for not wearing helmet,but they are always reluctant to wear helmets for various reasons ranging from losing hair to females not able maintain their hairstyle to feeling very hot while riding and the list goes on. Recently, when helmets are made mandatory for riders in an Indian  state , people protested against that by breaking helmets on the roads in front of the police stations😧- reason? I don't know!!

It would not have been an ideal comparison if I have taken a well developed, rich, highly educated, technologically advanced, sophisticated country to compare these 2 simple things with what happens in India.When Sri Lanka can follow this why not in India which aspires to be a global superpower or at least the big brother of South Asian nations???

It's always those simple things that make huge difference!

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